Word Origin & History

defendant c.1400, in the legal sense, from Fr. défendant, prp. of défendre (see defend). General sense of "defender" is from 1530s; earliest use in English was as a prp. meaning "defending" (eary 14c.).

Example Sentences for defendant

In all this Eleazer had the air of conducting the case for the defendant.

And you, Cabasse, have you nothing to say either for or against the defendant?

Rufus Choate represented the defendant and Daniel Webster the plaintiff.

The witness remembered how at the inquiry the defendant Ray had defended his accomplice.

Did any one accompany the defendant to St. Pancras that night?

The defendant in the present action was not the man whom he married to the plaintiff.

Then tell the court how you came to identify the defendant as Drayton.

Was it really necessary that the defendant should be called?

Counsel rose again, and asked that the defendant's witnesses might be recalled.

The witness quarreled with the defendant four days ago, and this is his revenge.